This Father's Day, while most brands chase applause with offers and emotional ads, CARS24 is choosing sarcasm. The kind that hits just right.
Across Delhi and Bengaluru, unsuspecting visitors to markets and malls were met with an unusual sight: parking spots that were blocked off with simple signs that read: "Reserved. For the car you should have gifted your dad."
Instead of putting up giant emotional billboards, CARS24 chose parking lots; the one place dads still visit in their 12-year-old cars with broken horns and faded dashboards. Because the truth is, they never ask for upgrades. And most kids... never offer.
The activation was designed as a quiet punch to the gut. Just enough to make people stop mid-scroll or mid-parking and think: "Damn. It is time that our dad drives a better car.
Most fathers in India don't upgrade easily. Not their phones, not their shoes, and definitely not their cars. The suspension creaks, the stereo is still old school, but they will make it work. Because that is what they do.
"Everyone's too busy upgrading their own life. Meanwhile, dad is still reverse parking without sensors," said Gajendra Jangid, Co-founder & CMO, CARS24. "We didn't want to sell a car. We wanted to make children think and maybe do something about it."
In an ecosystem flooded with Father's Day campaigns telling people to "do more," CARS24 chose to say less, trusting the message (and the parking spot) to do the heavy lifting.
If the campaign made someone pause, smile, or think twice that is all it was meant to do. Well, that and maybe finally upgrade the man who never asked.
